Independent participatory media for Iran

Taghi Rahmani, a senior campaign official for opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, was arrested today, the latest in a long string of arrests.

Karroubi’s Saham News website reports that Rahmani was arrested in his home. He was last arrested in the wake of the 2009 presidential elections, along with political activists Hoda Saber and Reza Alijani. Rahmani was first arrested in 1982 and sentenced to three years in prison for "membership in a group with Ali Shariati worldviews." He was arrested again in 1987 for publishing an underground newspaper and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

After his release, he founded the monthly Iran Farda and the weekly Omid Zanjan, publishing extensive studies on religious modernism. His links to national religious activists led to more arrests and prison sentences.

Rahmani won the Human Rights Watch Hellman-Hammet award in 2005.

Rahmani’s wife Nargess Mohammadi, who is the deputy head of Human Rights Defenders Centre, was also arrested last year but was released on bail due to health complications.